Monday, February 25, 1946

The Charlotte News

Monday, February 25, 1946

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports that Marriner Eccles, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, had stated that President Truman's new wage-price formula might result in a ten percent rise in the cost of living over existing levels, already 30 percent above pre-war levels. He rated that a pretty good record, given the large public financing of the war effort. He proposed a substantial increase in the capital gains tax to halt speculative buying. He also recommended balancing of the budget and reduction of the national debt.

G.M. and the UAW remained in negotiations to try to end the strike of autoworkers.

The transport workers of New York threatened a walkout the following day unless wage demands were met. It came on the heels of resolution of the tugboat operators strike which had caused a citywide shutdown on February 12 and paralyzed the city for ten days by limiting supplies of fuel.

The electrical workers in Pittsburgh were preparing to resume their strike starting at midnight, having struck for 24 hours two weeks earlier.

The presidential election in Argentina the previous day had been orderly, but it would be another 30 to 40 days before the results would be known, whether strong man Juan Peron or Sr. Tamborini.

The Royal Indian Navy mutineers had returned to duty and all was back to normal in Bombay, after a week of unrest and rioting.

After a gala farewell party provided in Philadelphia to 276 crew members of the Prinz Eugen, the Germans prepared to board ships in New York for a voyage back to Germany for repatriation. The crew members had been held as prisoners of war. The party was thrown by pro-Germans, friends, and relatives. The Philadelphia Record reported that they appeared as conquering heroes, feted with food and liquor, the latter ordinarily prohibited in the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

It was invisible.

At the request of the new Mecklenburg-Gaston Solicitor, Basil Whitener, Superior Court Judge J. H. Clement ordered capiases for the arrest of all defendants and witnesses failing to appear for court, in what appeared to be a crackdown on the longstanding practice of non-appearance with impunity under deceased Solicitor John Carpenter. Summoned jurors who failed to appear were assessed $40 each.

Hal Boyle, still in New Delhi, reports that British Viceroy to India, Lord Wavell, faced two problems, famine and factional uproar. Lord Wavell lived in a four million dollar palace but kept the lifestyle of a professional soldier. He was 62, though looked 55.

A photograph appears of then Princess Elizabeth at Bedford inspecting British troops returned from prisoner of war camps overseas.

A photograph appears of a two-year old boy who had a broken leg and needed milk in Milwaukee, rubbing his nose against that of a two-week old goat, supplied to his family by a local dairy.

We assume the two photographs were not meant to be interconnected.

On the editorial page, "The Spanking of Boss Petrillo" tells of preparation by Congress of a bill to prohibit Musicians Union Boss James Petrillo from being able to coerce union membership through limitation of playing live or recorded music for broadcast without union membership of the musicians. The ultimate goal of Mr. Petrillo appeared to be the destruction of all phonographs and radio equipment to encourage greater attendance of live performances.

Despite his cynical use of power, the piece questions the attempt by Congress to reach his particular practice via what amounted to a bill of attainder. It could as easily be used also to limit John L. Lewis of UMW, or Philip Murray of CIO or Walter Reuther of UAW. Then, contrarians in Congress would seek to pass a law to limit G.M.'s power.

The type of legislation being sought only added to the mass of confusion. It would be better, it opines, to pass a bill taking a comprehensive approach to limiting the activities and power of organized labor.

"Can You Barter Democracy?" suggests that a vindictive policy of the United States was substituting for the Golden Rule favored by President Truman.

It had been reported by the Russian press that in Korea, General Hodge had refused admission of a Russian correspondent to the Southern sector controlled by the United States, saying that he would welcome the Russian reporters when American journalists were allowed beyond the 38th Parallel into the North.

While being proper in a world of tit for tat, it also implied that America had something to hide, just as the Russian refusal of openness suggested to American readers. The reputation of a democracy would suffer more than Russia for following the same practice.

It favors leadership by example.

"Conservative View of OPA" comments on an opinion voiced by James McGraw, Jr., of McGraw-Hill publishing, that OPA price controls needed to be maintained to avoid inflation. It was an unusual voice coming from within the business establishment. He doubted the efficacy of the President's wage-price policy just announced the previous week.

The editorial finds the position sensible.

A piece from the Mecklenburg Times, titled "Alerting the County", warns against legalization of liquor in Mecklenburg. The beer joints were enough to make one sick and it would only be worse with liquor. Many who had not been drinkers became so after legalization in Wake and Durham Counties. Now they spent much time at liquor parties, where partiers were led away so they would not stumble and fall.

The Devil would take over in Mecklenburg should liquor be legalized.

The editors note: "Have you looked around in Charlotte lately, say at about 10:30 on a Saturday night?"

What is that supposed to mean, smarty pants? They go to Fort Mill and come back.

Drew Pearson reports that for some time, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter had been looking into restoration of the House of Hapsburg in Austria. It may have had something to do with Austria barring from the country the two brothers of Crown Prince Otto. The Soviets had sought the return of monarchies to the thrones of Italy and Rumania, and so Justice Frankfurter appeared on the same side.

Prince Otto had lived in the United States for many years and had been a model citizen, befriending FDR. FDR had even issued a rare order to the military to establish an Austrian legion to train for the purpose of re-taking Austria during the war. The notion was abandoned, however, because of intense opposition from the Croats, Slovenes, and Austrians living in the U.S., who did not like the Hapsburgs.

The reason FDR had promoted the idea was because of the influence had on him by Justice Frankfurter, born in Vienna. Some schools banned Jews at the time Felix was a schoolboy. Emperor Franz Joseph allowed any of his subjects to visit him on one day of the week. Felix's mother therefore was able to meet with the Emperor and obtain admission to a good school for the promising young student. Shortly thereafter, he emigrated to the United States where he attended C.C.N.Y. and Harvard Law School, where he subsequently taught until being tapped by FDR in 1939 for the Supreme Court.

Mr. Pearson next tells of America Firster Gerald L. K. Smith having charged before HUAC that Eddie Cantor, Ingrid Bergman, Frank Sinatra, and Orson Welles were "Communist fellow-travelers."

—Yeah, Bob. That's right. Jack Kennedy and Frank. Perfect example.

—Well, I've known Frank for years. We go way back. It's different with us, though, Bob. It's just golf. But you know how Jack Kennedy was.

—Oh yeah, that's right. But it was a terrible thing. It could have been me.

—That's exactly right. If we don't cultivate some of these Commie leftists, how can we ever hope to get elected when they rule so much in this country already? It's just like Chambers.

Representative Gerald Landis of Indiana told Mr. Smith that he should lay forth the goods or go away, that he would not tolerate the committee being used as a "sounding board for smearing prominent persons."

Though Mr. Smith promised evidence, in three weeks since his testimony, he had not furnished any.

He next tells of Department of Agriculture investigators having found that thousands of loaves of good white bread were going to waste while the country was being placed on a dark bread diet to feed Europe. The white bread was being fed to hogs and chickens. Many bakeries in large cities followed the practice of consigning to grocery stores more white bread than they could sell and shortly afterward, sometimes the same day, the bakery would pick up the unsold loaves, charging the store only for those sold, all in the name of promoting a particular brand for its freshness.

The unsold loaves, though still edible by humans, then were often placed in the garbage or sold to farmers for their livestock.

Congressional wives from South Carolina recently compared notes about all sorts of things, including their husbands and food. Mrs. Olin Johnston, wife of the Senator, remarked on how fortunate she was to receive hams and turkeys from constituents, making her shopping easier. A Congressman's wife remarked in response that she never got those hams. But Mrs. Johnston told her that some of the best they received came from the district represented by the woman's husband. An uneasy silence fell over the room.

Marquis Childs reports that recently Republicans were discussing their increased chances of taking the House in the fall. Congressman Joe Martin of Massachusetts indicated how he would conduct the House as Speaker, saying that he would open each session with a prayer and "end it with a vote for a new probe."

Mr. Childs finds the jest nevertheless instructive of the Republican intent to investigate scandals from the New Deal years, inevitable with so much money being spent. They saw as an omen the conviction of Boston Mayor James Curley—who had been elected from prison to the Boston Board of Aldermen in 1904 and would continue his term as Mayor after his five months in prison in 1947 for mail fraud, President Truman issuing him a pardon on both convictions in 1950.

—Yeah, Bob. See?

—Yeah, I pardon Hoffa. They go nuts. But, oh know. They can pardon whoever they wish and it is quite alright.

—That's right, more honest than they are. Keep at it, Bob. As Chuck was saying the other day...

—Yeah, they'll follow, alright.

The hearings which had taken place regarding the nomination of Ed Pauley had exposed the underground workings of party machinery, distasteful to most ordinary voters. The Republicans were seeking to exploit this reaction.

Whether the Republicans would cynically view confirmation of Mr. Pauley as a greater liability to the Administration than his defeat remained to be determined. But Democratic loyalty appeared to have prevailed such that the probability was that Mr. Pauley would be confirmed as Undersecretary of the Navy.

But the net result of the investigation had been to undermine confidence in government at a time when it needed to be at its highest, to effect reconversion in a stable economy. It would likely lead to stalemate, just as in the period of 1930-33 after the Democrats obtained the House in the 1930 election following twelve years of Republican rule, when President Hoover "wavered and wobbled and did nothing." Democrat John Nance Garner, as Speaker, was introducing bills which appeared to call for huge sums of money for relief and public works. Mr. Garner, from Texas, would then become Vice-President under FDR during the first two terms.

The Democrats held a majority in the House of 239 to 191. Republican strategy was to concentrate in districts where the Democrats had won by small margins in 1944.

And ultimately in the fall of 1946, they would obtain the overwhelming majority in the House, more surprisingly, also in the Senate, where the Democrats presently held a nineteen-seat majority.

Mr. Childs concludes that the lesson to the Administration ought be to send less controversial appointments for confirmation to the Senate.

Buel W. Patch discusses the political situation in India, with Pakistan being the primary problem in effecting a solution. Pakistan was primarily Moslem, a religion to which belonged 90 million of India's population, with 260 million of the 400 million being Hindu. Most Moslems were of the same racial background as the Hindus.

The Moslem League, headed by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, fearing dominance by the Hindus in an independent India, had put forward in 1940 the Pakistan plan, under which Pakistan would become an independent state. The proposal included two areas in Northern India, 1,500 miles apart. Moslems were in the majority in three of the smaller provinces included in the plan, while in Assam they were in the minority, and in the western half of Bengal, the largest province in India with 60 million people, and in the eastern half of Punjab, with 28 million total population, they were also in the minority.

The Congress Party, representing the Hindus, initially opposed the plan. But in September, 1944, Gandhi had stated that he would support it under certain conditions whereby a commission would establish contiguous districts in which the Moslem populations in the northeast and northwest sections had a majority population. The issue of independence from India would then be decided by plebiscite within those districts.

Jinnah wanted the matter determined without a plebiscite and inclusion of the whole of the six districts, with a population of 100 million. Under Gandhi's proposal, there would be only 60 million in Pakistan.

There's an idea, Red States, whereunder you can form the Confederacy all over again. Go for it. It might be better, for awhile. No more gun control or Roe v. Wade. Pray all day long in school, all day long, compulsorily, as you will surely need it for your protection. Lower taxes so that the schools would not be able to teach those Communist doctrines like Darwin, and you can undertake home-schooling.

But remember, once you're gone, you can't come back. Be careful what you wish for.

Continues Mr. Patch, "Pakistan" means "Holy Land", but Moslem League supporters claimed the "P" stood for Punjab, the "a" for Afghanistan, the "k" for Kashmir, and the "istan" for Baluchistan. The inclusion of Afghanistan, outside India, suggested that the Moslem League intended a Pan-Islamic Federation, especially after Jinnah had stated recently that Moslems would aid the Arabs in any way they could. He had also indicated that failure to support the idea of an independent Pakistan would lead to a Moslem revolt, while others believed that the creation of an independent Pakistan would result in a Moslem attempt to dominate India and lead inexorably to civil war.

A letter writer, a veteran, defends "John Q. Civilian, the non-veteran" against the notion held by some veterans that he should take a backseat to the veteran for the remainder of his life. Veterans, he suggests, should not expect the world to provide them with favors and red carpet treatment. And the civilians who stayed home were oftentimes doing so because of physical disabilities or age, not dodging of the draft, and nevertheless contributed in war industry to the necessary task of keeping the supply lines filled.

By the same token, many veterans would have liked to stay at home but for being drafted.

He recommends to his fellow veterans a realistic approach to readjustment to civilian life, not harboring the expectation of a Rolls Royce and a corporate vice-presidency as a prize for going overseas and fighting.

He concludes by informing that he served for five years, had volunteered, saw England blitzed in 1940-41, landed on Normandy in 1944, suffered through the Ardennes offensive of December-January the previous year, and had "Rhine fever".

An irate reader in another letter threatens to cancel her subscription over the Burke Davis series anent liquor control, through the A.B.C. system, having given Wake County an operating budget on a cash basis, enabling fine schools.

She says that A.B.C. stores in Charlotte would cause a divorce in her home because her husband could not pass a liquor store without going inside, but would never be caught going to a bootlegger.

The editors respond that they were sympathetic but could not understand why a man who would not wish to be a patron of a private bootlegger would buy his liquor in a public store.

We suppose the reason would be that some only wish to get drunk legally.

Herblock...

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